EXCLUSIVE: US defends “sovereignty” of African states in use of coal and gas

from SCOTT COURIER in Washington, United StatesWASHINGTON, (CAJ News) – THE lack of electricity in Africa has become a factor in Washington’s “war on terror” Good news millions who live off the grid, but the policy is set to draw fire from those opposed to fossil fuel.

Two of the most senior voices in United States (US) energy have backed the right of developing countries to generate electricity “in any way they deem fit”, while calling for more funds to develop clean fossil fuels.

Barry Worthington, executive director of the United States Energy
Association (USEA) said there were “few priorities greater for the world than getting people linked to the grid”, including an estimated 300 million Indians who live without power and double that number in Africa.

“If we are going to respect the sovereignty of countries in Africa, and nations like India, Poland, Bangladesh or anywhere else, we must also respect their right to use their natural resources,” he said.

“The United States would require no less from other countries. Our
constitution starts with, ‘We the people,’ and those words should apply to every nation on earth. ‘The people’ of this or that country must be the ones who decide what they do with solar, wind, gas, oil or coal. And, yes, I purposely include coal in that list because so plentiful. We can’t ignore that.”

The USEA is part-funded by the US government and brings together
energy companies from across the country, providing them with a voice
in Washington.

He said access to electricity in Africa — whatever the source — should
be seen as a basic right. “Schools with lights and computers, hospitals with operating theatres and X-ray machines, factories where people can get work.”

But he said it was also a security issue. “Desperate young people, on the same social media as kids in New York or London, and watching the same TV shows, feel left out, excluded, because they have no jobs.

“These are the recruiting fields for terror and militia groups and for people traffickers who too often carry exiles to their death, or for sale as forced labour.”

Without electricity, he said, any country would “struggle to industrialise and to provide jobs and a better life for their people.”

The use of coal in Africa and Asia stands at a record high and a number of environmental groups have called for a move to wind and solar to counter the effect on climate change.

Mr Worthington said he supported the use of renewables but “you must
have baseload power to start with, and the technology of wind and solar is not there yet.”

The US and other developed countries, he said, “should not behave like
some colonial overlord dictating to others on how they use coal, especially in Asia and Africa where it is cheap and plentiful.”

But he said there was an urgent need to develop cleaner ways of burning fossil fuels “in those countries who are going to do it anyway”.

His comments were supported by former White House energy advisor,
George David Banks, who in 2017 represented the US at the United
Nations summit on global warming.

Although Mr Banks is seen as close to president Donald Trump and the
administration, he believes the US should rejoin the Paris Accord on
climate change. Last year, Mr Trump announced his intent to withdraw
his country from the deal, saying it was flawed.

In his 2016 election campaign, he promised to revitalise the US coal
industry while Hillary Clinton threatened to shut it down. Support from coal-mining states helped secure a Trump victory.

“I believe we can better protect our interests by being at the table on the Paris Accord,” Mr Banks said.

“Not everyone in the White House agrees on that, but I would add the rider that this $100bn bundle of money rich countries are meant to stump up for poorer nations is not going to happen. I doubt the US will further pay into it and I haven’t seen anyone else writing a cheque.”

The Paris agreement includes a $100bn fund to help poor nations adapt
to changing weather patterns.

Mr Banks said he would rather see a transfer of clean technology for
fossil fuels from the US and other leaders in the field “to developing
nations who have no choice but to burn coal or gas and who really need
to be doing that a lot cleaner”.

He agreed with Worthington that access to electricity was now seen by
Washington as part of the war on terror.

“People who have never known a day without electricity in their homes
want to lecture poor countries where up to 80 per cent of the population is not on the grid,” he said.

“I am passionate about the environment and I believe in the science on
climate change, but I also see electricity as a human need, and if Bangladesh or Tanzania must use coal or other fossil fuels, then let’s
help them reduce the emissions.”

At an oil summit in Cape Town last October, US energy secretary Rick
Perry suggested that coal-dependant countries form an alliance to
share the new clean technology that has been pioneered in Australia,
India, South Africa and the United States.

Barry Worthington said he supported the idea and he and Banks have
spoken on the concept.

But Mr Banks said the US should develop a true partnership with the
developing world. “When it comes to energy and climate policy, poorer
countries are much more aligned with the Trump Administration than
they are with the anti-coal bloc being pushed by Britain, France, and
Canada.”

Kenya is building its first coal-fired power station at Lamu on the coast while Tanzania already has a plant in production on the southern border with Mozambique. Between them, the two countries have more than
five billion tons of coal in the ground.

Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana get a majority of their electricity from coal while use is growing in Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and Viet Nam. India, China, Australia and the US are among the world’s largest users of coal-fired electricity while natural gas is also on the rise.

“We can so easily move into denial on all this,” Mr Worthington said.
“Global organisations like the UN, the IMF, even the European Union,
sometimes relate to the world as they’d like it to be, rather than how
things are on the ground.

“That kind of thinking doesn’t help anyone and it ignores the plight
of billions who live in poverty made worse by a lack of power,” he
said.

“If we in the US expect a certain quality of life including unlimited electricity at an affordable price, then that’s what everyone deserves, regardless of where they live.”